*doing a little jingle*

It rained!

YaY!

:o)

Fucking AWEsome weekend!

There were four of them...

A Pajero, Ford Escape, Jeep Cherokee and the Land Cruiser ( listed in ascending order of coolness!).

Destination Fossil Rock

The Pajero was driven by an idiot. So we got stuck before we even got to the dune bashing areas. The sand is soft, and when you're going downhill, you mustn't hesitate and hit the brakes or you'll get stuck. And the more you hit the accelerator, the deeper you'll sink.

Like so...

(fyi, idiot not in pic, he's sitting inside and I hope to God he doesn't blog!)

Anyway, it was almost sunset by the time we set off again.

By the time we finally got to the campsite, it was pitch black and we had to rely on the bonfire and the headlights of the cars to pitch the tents (which was fuckin hard to do btw!)

We set up camp, got the bbq working, set up a bar on top of the cruiser, and I got totally wasted!

Singing,dancing , chasing someone (!?!), falling down, eating all kinds of exotic cheese ( this guy who loves cheese brought alll sorts of varieties to eat with mortadella and I now love him almost as much as I love cheese), looking up at the stars and trying to make out constellations ( didn't work of course, at that point I wouldn't have been able to tell the moon from a plane!)... it's all one big happy blur.

In the morning, we decided to split into two groups, one group would stay behind at camp with two vehicles, and the other two would go do some serious dune-bashing. I went the first time with my Iranian friend and his family in the Jeep. We were following the cruiser (driven by the cheese-lover, who also happens to be a fantastic desert-driver.

We got back to camp and checked out who else wanted to go. There were just about 3 of them who wanted to go, and they trooped into the Jeep, and I got into the cruiser with the cheese-lover. And this time, he let me drive! ( I love him more now, almost as much as I love the cruiser!)

It was a manual one, so I had a bit of trouble in the beginning, but then I was fine. They didn't take any of the really tough dunes, and all I really had to do was follow the car in front of me. We were going along just fine when suddenly the guy in the Jeep yelled at me to turn back. It was too steep and the sand was too soft. So I turned back.

Too late. We slid back a bit, and we got stuck. And then the Jeep got stuck too.

It took a while to get out of there, and I took a video of the whole thing.

I've put up a very small portion of it here ( cos the whole thing has too much dialogue, with people and names being called out and all), you can see the Cruiser at the side, and the angle at which it got stuck.

Anyway, we got out finally and got back to camp, and a while later two bedouins came up with their new-age camels asking for water : )

Somebody get me them Yamaha-camels!

We had a fantastic time and I took hundreds of snaps. But I'm tired, and maybe you are too , this is a long post. So I'm gonna stop with this one last snap I took on our way to Fossil Rock.

If you're in the UAE and you like a bit of dune-bashing, you should try this place.

Trying to not think!

And I thought I was made of sterner stuff!

Work work work work!
Crazzzzzy unreasonable clients I was forced to be polite to, the added workload that was bestowed on me cos my senior quit to have a baby, the fact that she was having a baby, the knowledge that I was actually thankful for the added workload so that I'll be too busy to think about anything else, thinking in spite of the workload... it's been a helluva month.

I guess my body has finally given up on me.
The doc asked me one if I was under a lot of stress.

Hell yeah!

He gave me enough meds to last me a lifetime and told me I was to "stop thinking" for a bit. Cos it's psychosomatic apparently.

I woke up at 6 am today, but mum said you're not going to work like this no way so I got back to bed and tried to 'relax'. I tossed and turned and finally gave up trying to go back to sleep.

I tried to relax. Tried to 'not think'.
But this not-thinking business is really tough if you're not asleep.

I can think of only one thing that'll help me not think.
Alcohol of course!

Now I know why there are so many drunks in the world.
*Sigh*

I work myself to death... for what?

All I want to do right now is die.
I'm sick of it all. Everything.

It all seems so pointless.

This post was never meant to be published. I guess I must have hit ctrl s by mistake or something, I only realized it was published when I got comments for it!
It's incomplete.
I haven't mentioned what happened in the end. But I really don't feel like right now. But since it's out here already, I'm gonna let it be.

V and I were on our way to City Centre to catch a movie.
It was around 10. pm.
I was driving on the slow lane.
This crazy idiot on my left wanted to take the service lane on the right and he forced me onto the pavement hard. My tyre burst and the guy just ignored me and drove off.
Creep! I got his license plate number and saved it.

I called the cops but ( you will not believe this, but it's true!) no one answered!!
This is the first time the dxb police has completely disappointed me.

Anyway, there we were, two girls who knew nothing about changing tyres ( gimme a break, I've never done it before and they don't teach you in your driving classes) with a burst tyre on our hands. V called up a friend and he said he'll be with us in 15 mins or so.

This man who was passing by came up and offered to help. He was about 50 or so I guess. He told us he's from Iran. Iranian people are nice!

He changed the tyres for us. It's simple but it's hard work!
We just watched and stood around and talked.
Yeah.

Makes us sound like a couple of paris hiltons I know, but we're not really. We wanted to help, but didn't really know how, and he refused to be helped.

He just finished and said ok, you're done and we thanked him and thanked him and he said it's alright. and he drove off.

Lost

I live in dubai (dxb).

If you're in the UAE, dxb is the most convenient state to live in. You won't ever need to get out of dxb (unless you wanna go off-roading or climb mountains or something.)

I don't usually venture out to other emirates (states) unless I really have to.

Yesterday, I was working later than usual. I left work around 9pm.

I was driving along just fine ( not concentrating on where I was going really, cos I take this route most days anyway ) when suddenly I found myself looking at a road sign with Ajman and Ras Al Khaimah written on it!
FYI- Ajman and Ras al Khaimah are two different emirates (states) of the UAE.

I have no idea how I got there.

Worse, I had no idea how to get back!

So I cruised around a bit, looking for the next exit. But the exit was for Dhaid ( a place I hadn't even heard of till then, and it sounded damn far off!) so I didn't want to take that. I kept going.

The lamp posts were all weird with intricate patterns on it and the road was empty.On my right there was this huuuuuge building, with a dome that was semi lit and looking all creepy-like.

I just wanted to get the hell out of there and back to more familiar landmarks.

But I didn't know how. The further I went, the further away I seemed to be going away from dxb.

I didn't know what to do. I was on the phone and decided to hang up and concentrate on where to go for a bit. But having no one to talk to creeped me out even more.

I finally saw a petrol pump and went in, asked them where the hell I was. Turned out I was in Sharjah(another state, right after dubai)! Had no idea Sharjah could ever be so empty!

I asked for a way to dxb and the guy gave me directions, but the roads were too unfamiliar and there were too many exits so I got nowhere.

The buildings were all palace-like, wiiiide and imposing, and very sinister-looking; the roads were not so brightly lit either.

There were no cars on the road and I felt like I was the only human being left in the whole world!

Creeped me out! I kept hitting the auto-lock button to ensure the car was locked.

I also felt incredibly small, the way I feel sometimes when I look at the full moon.

I finally did get back to dubai of course, although it took me more than an hour and sevaral phone calls and stops on the way to ensure I was going in the right direction.

Got home at 11pm.

But the incident was.. surreal- the buildings, the empty roads, how I got there in the first place...

Guess I should stop working so late.

And pay more attention and not assume that all roads lead to dxb!

:o)